The result of layering paints and glazes always amazes me. It truly gives you a unique, polished, professional look and in many cases can look like stained wood. Such was the case with this maple bedroom set painted in General Finishes Van Dyke Brown Glaze over Driftwood paint.
The bedroom set belonged to a close friend of mine. Her daughter actually. Her daughter is grown and off to college (Syracuse University – she’s very smart!) so it was time to take her little-girl bedroom furniture from cute to sophisticated. Of course I cannot find the “before” picture, but it it looked something like this blonde maple dresser and had pastel, flowers embellishing the drawer fronts.
My friend was in the process of painting the bedroom a very light gray with blue undertones. A nice, cool neutral. For the furniture, her daughter asked for a deep brown finish with varying shades. If you siimply paint using just one deep brown shade of paint, the result will be a very flat, chocolate color. The goal here, was instead to create layers of color. To achieve this I would layer General Finishes Van Dyke Brown Glaze over General Finishes Driftwood paint.
The set consisted of a long 7-drawer dresser, a tall 5-drawer dresser, and a nightstand. All were solid wood. I began by sanding down all pieces with a rotary sander. From there I tinted primer with the Driftwood paint. Then I painted using the Driftwood paint. As you can see, General Finishes Driftwood is a medium-tone, muddy gray color.
From there I applied General Finishes Van Dyke Brown Glaze. The glaze is a thin chocolate brown consistency. You paint it on with brush, working in one flat section at a time, and then wipe it off with a clean, cotton rag in smooth even swipes.
The result was a chocolate brown finish with layers of color. Just enough of the gray showed through so when we placed it in the light gray room, the gray underneath the brown glaze was highlighted.
The painted finish actually resembles the 7-layer stained dresser I finished up a few weeks ago.
I like how subtle the texture looks. The set is sophistacated and I bet your friends daugther is thrilled.
Thank you. Yes she loved it!
Looks amazing! What, if anything, did you use as a topcoat, wax, poly?
Hi Sherry. For these dressers I used Minwax Wipe-on Poly as the topcoat. The driftwood/brown glaze was a dark enough color to handle a slight amber color from an oil based poly.
What a beautiful finish Vicki, -as always…. I bet it looks gorgeous in that light grey room! Pining this combo for future reference! Thanks for sharing your project at #fridaysfurniturefix!
Thank you so much Brenda!
could it be done with particle board furniture?
Yes, you can paint MDF and then add the glaze over the paint.
I love the way this looks. I’m starting a 3 piece bedroom set today and using this technique. My client asked for a charcoal grey with a glaze. Showed her these pictures and she agreed to was perfect. I’m praying it’s not to brown when finished, pictures can be so deceiving.
Leah, I used a satin oil-based poly as the protective topcoat which turned these dressers a even more brown/yellow. I would suggest you use a water-based poly on yours.